PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles City Council candidates Kate Dexter and Mimi Smith Dvorak made their positions clear on several issues during a Port Angeles Business Association meeting at Jazzy Joshua’s.
Dexter, the incumbent who is serving her second two-year term as mayor, has been on the Port Angeles City Council since 2018. Dvorak is challenging for Position 4. Fellow challenger Ralph Davisson did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.
The primary election is set for Aug. 5. Ballots will be mailed July 16, according to the Clallam County Auditor’s Office.
To support growth in the city, Dexter said the city council needs to support and invest in infrastructure. She said what she is most concerned about is the city is in the signature period for a new contract with the Bonneville Power Administration. Without the McKinley Paper Company mill running, the city will lose tier 1 power, which is cheaper and hydroelectric, and it may be shifted to tier 2, which comes from a mix of resources and much more expensive.
Dvorak said the comprehensive plan the city is working on doesn’t address anything economic and asked why government is being asked to grow business.
“We need to clear the decks and let creative people do the thinking,” she said. “I would ask business leaders to come together, and I would stop using funds on an Oregon company because we have people here who can do so much more and have a dog in the fight.”
Dexter said one of the best ways the city can support business is to continue supporting the Clallam Economic Development Council and invest proactively in infrastructure.
Dvorak said she thinks the city needs to stop the bleed to outside consultants to support local business.
When asked how they envision the city’s role will be to ensure the McKinley site remains a strong job creation site, Dvorak said she’d have to sit down for weeks and read about it. She said the city would need to make calls to see who wants the site.
“The city can continue to offer that land at a very reasonable price,” Dexter said. “We need to think strategically about the industrial water line. We know it’s leaking and it’s not efficient.”
On the topic of housing, Dexter said the city council has to be flexible and nimble and that council members heard from many different groups about the need for multifamily housing.
When compared to Sequim, Dexter said Sequim has big box stores and outperforms Port Angeles in sales tax. She reiterated the need for improved infrastructure.
Dvorak said there’s a focus on multifamily housing because that puts more money in the city’s coffers than single-family housing.
“I don’t want to see our cute cottages torn down to build duplexes and triplexes,” she said. “Building houses, I personally like single-family homes, but they’re expensive and a lot of people can’t afford them.”
Dexter stated one goal of the city is to focus on infill development.
When asked about their positions on timber sales, Dexter said she is not opposed to sales in general but supported the council’s action that opposed sales in the Elwha River basin because they wanted more information on how it would affect the river.
“If you clear the side of a hill and it rains a lot, doesn’t that mud go into the river?” she asked.
Dvorak said she’d like to sit down and have a serious discussion about timber sales and stated she thinks some people move to the area with preconceived notions about the sales and they go out to fight against them.
The candidates were asked about Interstate 5-area inflation and how it is higher than national inflation and what they each would do to keep it down.
“I think we just need to be mindful of how we’re spending,” Dexter said. “I’m not an expert on inflation, but one thing the city did was go to an all-cities (Consumer Price Index) to use a lower inflation rate.”
Dvorak said the city’s budget has a lot of waste in it.
“One way the city can help with inflation is to stop being an inflation producer,” she said. “Inflation is going to continue to hurt us.”
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
